The invention relates to a method for controlling a lighting system in an aircraft cabin.
According to the prior art, a lighting system for an aircraft cabin is generally known which comprises a multiplicity of lighting units arranged distributed in the aircraft cabin. Each of the lighting units consists of a controller and a multiplicity of RGB light-emitting diodes connected thereto. The controllers are connected to a central processor via a bus. In the central processor, a number of so-called “scene programmes” are stored. The “scene programmes” contain arithmetic instructions for continuously generating parameters which are transmitted to the controllers via the bus. On the basis of these parameters, for example, the brightness and/or the colour of the light generated by means of the RGB light-emitting diodes is changed with time by means of the controllers. This results in luminous scenarios or scenes. Such scenes can simulate, for example, a sunrise or a sunset. Furthermore, scenes can be created which have a calming or a stimulating effect on passengers.
In particular, aircraft cabins of modern wide-bodied aircraft require the provision of a lighting system having a relatively large number of lighting units. In this case, processing the respective scene programmes requires the transmission of a relatively high data rate via the bus. This, in turn, leads undesirably to a reduction in the speed of the data exchange via the bus. This is undesirable especially with regard to other control data to be transmitted via the bus, especially control data relating to flight safety.